How do I beat Barthandelus in the first battle against him ?

okay so seriously , this boss is impossible for me. I have no idea how to beat him , I've tried many strategies I've found on the internet been upgrading my weapons like crazy and then I keep upgrading the characters with the crystal points and I still can't beat this guy. And this is the first time where you fight this guy 'cause apparently you have to fight this guy again ? but yea , how do you beat this guy ?

Top Voted Answer

Alright, i did this strategy, and it was super easy for me. Have:Lightning:HopeSazh

With the paradigmsCOM/SYN/SYN

RAV/RAV/RAV

COM/COM/MED

COM/MED/SYN

COM/SYN/COM.

Begin with COM/SYN/SYN, and wait till you have (i think) seven biffs, the buffs being:Haste(this is a biggie.)VeilProtectShellFaithBraveryVigilance.With these, a lot of his attacks aren't that dangerous.

There are two ways you can do this.One, you can wait until you have all the buffs. This is not recommended, as you have less time to get rid of the right pauldron and ailette.Or two,you wait till you have less than that, then start. (again, haste is good.)

After you have the buffs you want, switch to RAV/RAV/RAV, and build up the stagger gauge of the right pauldron (or ailette). After you stagger him, cast two more rounds of magic, then switch to COM/COM/MED to attack and heal. You should only need one stagger, but two is fine. It just makes a smidget harder. You need to get rid of the right ones, as fire and thunder are more dangerous than water and ice. After you get rid of the pauldrons and stuff, the REAL fight begins. No, not really. For this, you need all the buffs. Use RAV/RAV/RAV, unless your health gets low, in which you switch to RAV/RAV/MED. after you stagger him, go for about 3-4 nore rounds, then switch to COM/COM/MED to take off large chunks of health. After he has been staggered once, he will start to randomly cast a powerful spell known as destrudo. He takes about 26 seconds to charge. When he starts to charge it, IMMEDIATLY switch to Rav/Rav/Rav and get the chain gauge up. Haste is immensly helpful here. After about three quarters, he will have to restart charging. This is what you want, as it becoms a lot less powerful. Repeat, recasting buffs as necessary.~Supershadic12

Answers

Here is a scheme that I have used to get through this battle. No weapons upgrades used but accessory upgrades were. Crystarium levels were at the maximum possible at the point of battle entry. Also, its helpful to use an Aegisol, a Fortisol and a Deceptisol before the battle starts (occasionally the Deceptisol seems to work but not usually).

Start by attacking one of the four small heads (I do Left Pauldron, Left Ailette, Right Ailette, Right Pauldron) with Relentless Assault (RAV, COM,RAV). Keep attacking and heal when necessary only. The goal is to eliminate the four heads fairly quickly before the opponent strengthens the magic attack. Just before finishing off the fourth head, switch to Combat Clinic (MED SEN MED) to heal so that your party can enter the next phase of the battle at close to full strength.

As you finish off the fourth head and the "transformation" occurs, attack full out to try to stagger Barthandelus. This is probably your "best" chance to make a significant reduction in the enemy's hit points quickly. One can use Relentless Assault and Aggression (COM, COM, RAV) as a basic attack approach. Switching between these can shorten the interval between attacks instead of just waiting for the ATB Bar to refill. (Another possibility is to summon Odin at this point and use the Eidelon's strengths to reduce Barthandelus's hit points. A benefit is that when Odin leaves, the battle party reappears with full hit point gauges.)

After the "transformation event, Barthandelus uses Baptism in Ruin (Magical attack), Thanatosian Smile (Physical "machine gun" attack) and Destrudo (Laser attack). One or more instances of the first two attack types is followed by a single instance of the third to complete an attack "cycle".

The strategy during this is to time one's actions and pick away at the opponent's hit points in a race against the Doom counter clock. Attack using Relentless Assault and Aggression during Baptism in Ruin and Thanatosian Smile events. Insert a quick Combat Clinic (full or part) if needed. When Destrudo begins, switch to Combat Clinic and bring your party up to full hit points. As Destrudo ends, stand by with a potion to assist healing after the Laser is fired. After the Laser, quickly heal and return to the attack. Repeat until finished.

If you are running out of time and have not used Odin, a summon action will temporarily stop the Doom counter. You can use Odin and pound away with no Doom counter time cost if you are close to a win when the counter is nearing zero.

Oh boy if you're having trouble with his first battle... His second is way harder. It's all about experimenting but remember the cardinal rule... always buff, debuff, heal and stagger. Try something like sab/syn/med, sab/syn/rav, med/med/com, rav/rav/rav, rav/rav/com, com/com/med. Make sure u switch to two meds when you see his big attacks coming and don't be shy with using your Eidolon when ur teammates fall to raise them. When he staggers, try to get his chain gauge up to 999% with more spells then get a commando or two in there to cap his ass while keeping a healer on standby.

I had to upgrade accessories so as not to die after Destrudo. Also died once after Doom. In total, I lost some six or seven times until I finally beat him with Lightning Hope and Snow. It took me 21 minutes since it was impossible to stagger him more than twice, even with the eidolon. So basically I beat him him COM RAV RAV then MED MED SEN and eventually went back to COM SYN COM. Also used quake whenever possible and always had Lightning ready to heal herself after the laser attack, since it was always closely followed by Ruin and that actually killed me once.

DON'T USE FANG. She's not the best at anything yet, and she's unhelpful in this battle. Lacking both the Rav & Med roles, plus she only has a 3 atb gauge at this point, making Lightning the far better Com. Plus, there's no need whatsoever for a Sentinel in this battle. She's the least useful member of the party players could choose for this.

Lightning, Sazh, & Vanille are, by far, the best party at this point. With Vanille's debuffs obviously being the best for the whole game, and Sazh is the only one with offensive buffs at this point. With those, Lightning can kill everything by herself almost.

It works so well that I've only seen his ultimate attack in youtube videos. He's always dead before the attack gets used.

With shrouds start in:Com/Rav/ Sab

Without start in:Com/Syn/Sab

The offensive buffs are very important, as many people lose using the other parties because Sazh is the only one who learns haste for a long time.

Once the appropriate buffs & debuffs have been made, the other formations to use are:

Com/Rav/Rav until all the heads are gone, & then 1 to 2 turns against Barty himself to keep the chain gauge up.

Then Rav/Rav/Rav to get him staggered. Go back to Com/Rav/Rav to destroy him, switching to Com/Rav/Med if you need healing.

I'd also recommend having Med/Com/Med in case of emergencies. Doesn't usually come up, but it's nice to have a "just in case" formation.

On a side note, I'd also recommend maxing the crystarium in the huge room with all the platforms. Not because you have to have it for this fight, but because it's the best place to make gil for a while. Most of the monsters there have the "incentive chip" rare drop & credit chip normal drop.

Use the paradigms:1)COM/RAV/MED2)COM/MED/MED3)MED/MED/MED4)MED/SYN/SAB5)RAV/RAV/RAV6)COM/RAV/RAV(Optional) Use Fortisol and Aegisol before the battle to make it easier

Use a librascope to know each of the parts' elemntal weakness

Use paradigm 1) to defeat of each of the parts and heal up if u get damaged. This will make it easy to stagger and defeat each one of them

Use paradigm 2) when any of ur members get red health

When he starts using the third level attacks (ex: firaga) be sure to monitor the health bars and use number 2) when anyone goes red

When all of the parts are defeated stay on 1) to get Barthandelus staggered

Once staggered deal as much damage as possible

When he recovers he will be able to cast destrudo

When he charges destrudo he will reset the chain gauge. When he is charging the spell heal up your party and use 6) or 5) to get his chain bar to half. Once half he will shake his head in frustration interrupting the spell. He will then begin to recharge the spell but the chain bar will remain half. This is ur chance to stagger him, if u don't he will cast destrudo but weaker than normal.

You can also buff your party and debuff Barthandelus.

If the battle goes on for more than 20 min. He will cast doom on Lightning. If his health is below a quarter and the doom counter is below 200 summoning Odin will be your best shot as the doom counter stops ticking when he is summoned.

Use Odin in his normal form until his SP is below 200 then use his gestalt mode

In gestalt mode, uss Razor gale to stagger him and stormblade to deal massive damage when he is staggered.